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Lady Wildcats fall into loser’s bracket

MURFREESBORO — Soddy-Daisy has won eight state championships by doing the big and little things well.

The Lady Trojans dropped back-to-back home run bombs on Hannah Bodenhorn to erase an early Wilson Central lead and drop the Lady Wildcats into the state tournament loser’s bracket with a 3-2 victory Wednesday night at Starplex.

With the Lady Trojans trailing 1-0, Savannah Moore led off the fifth inning with a home run to left field on the first pitch. Abby Walker followed with a blast to left-center for a 2-1 lead.

Walker lined an RBI single to center field in the sixth to drove in Gracie Ratladge, courtesy-running for catcher Moore, who dropped a two-out double down the line in shallow right field.

That insurance score enabled Soddy-Daisy to withstand a Wilson Central run in the sixth as Kendall Eden slid home on a wild pitch. But the Lady Wildcats stranded eight runners as they fell to 34-16 and into a 10 a.m. elimination this morning against Gibbs [47-5].

This morning’s winner will return for a 4 p.m. contest against either Maryville or Coffee County.

“Soddy-Daisy made the adjustments they needed to make,” said Central coach Michael Sheppard, whose Lady Wildcats lost to Soddy-Daisy by the same score in the finals of the Lady Trojans’ tournament Easter weekend. “They knew they couldn’t hit [Bodenhorn’s] inside pitch, so they backed off the plate a little bit and hit those two home runs.”

Bodenhorn surrendered six hits and no walks while striking out 10.

Central jumped to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when catcher Brittany Wiseman doubled to right-center field with one out. Her courtesy-runner, Keily Preston, came home when Katie Eakes reached on a two-out fielding error.

Soddy starter Emily Edwards walked two and struck out six. She was pulled in the sixth after Eden singled and Brooke Pfefferle walked with no one out. Freshman reliever Shonna Penney gave up the wild pitch to score Eden, but allowed only a seventh-inning walk the rest of the way for the save.

“Their defense made the plays,” Sheppard said. “[Edwards] is a drop-ball pitcher and got a lot of ground balls.”

The Lady Wildcats opened the state tournament with a 4-2 morning win over Maryville.

Bodenhorn scattered five hits and three walks while striking out six.

Central scored single runs in the first two innings and widened a 2-1 edge with two in the bottom of the fifth. The Lady Wildcats also collected five hits.

Morgan Powell singled and scored on Eakes’ first-inning double.

Claire Smith doubled in the second and scored on a bases-loaded walk to Wiseman.

Back-to-back one-out errors set Central up for the big fifth. Pfefferle singled in one run and Karlie Odum was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in the other.

Raven Boyd homered in the Maryville fourth. The Lady Rebels scored in the seventh but left the tying run on base.